Cooking together -- or cooking for one another -- can be a great way to connect. Chef Raf and Toni share their tricks for how to express your love in the kitchen. Whether you're in a committed relationship, you're dating, you have kids or other family, or you have roommates, this episode has something for everyone.  With three decades of professional culinary experience, Rafael has graced the kitchens of Michelin-starred restaurants, luxury hotels, five-star resorts, and private estates. Alongside his wife Toni, an experienced event planner, cooking and hosting dinners together at home has been the binding force that continues to unite them in their marriage. Learn more about Chef Raf and Toni's cooking classes: https://chefrafaelgonzalez.com/date-night On Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/chef.rafael.gonzalez/ Karin’s website: www.drcalde.com Karin on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theloveandconnectioncoach/   TRANSCRIPT Intro: Karin: This is Love Is Us, Exploring Relationships and How We Connect. I'm your host, Karin Calde. I'll talk with people about how we can strengthen our relationships, explore who we are in those relationships, and experience a greater sense of love and connection with those around us, including ourselves. I have a PhD in clinical Psychology, practiced as a psychologist resident, and after diving into my own healing work, I went back to school and became a coach, helping individuals and couples with their relationships and personal growth. If you want to experience more love in your life and contribute to healing the disconnect so prevalent in our world today, you're in the right place. Welcome to Love Is Us.   Episode: [00:49] Karin: Hello, everybody. Today is my 47th episode and I've got one more to go. A solo episode next week before the end of my first season. So I'm pretty proud of that and excited about what's to come for next season and a few changes that I'm going to make. And I'll tell you about that next time. But I wanted to do a little something different for this episode, and I have two guests today. They're a married couple, chef Raf and Toni. And they have a background in cooking and teaching. They are not relationship experts, but they bring to us something new and something fun that I think really anyone can benefit from. You don't even really have to be in a relationship to get something out of this episode because they do teach cooking lessons to people of all ages and it can be something that you enjoy on your own or that you enjoy with friends or with your partner. So they are very real. I loved watching their relationship dynamics. They really do complement one another in a lot of ways and they share some great ways that you can connect over food and cooking, which is something that we all need. So I thought this was a lot of fun. And you'll also get just some great cooking tips for the holidays. And I did something different over Thanksgiving because of this interview, so perhaps you'll gain something as well. I hope you like it. I hope you'll share it. And thanks again for being here. Welcome, Chef Raf and Toni. It's great to have you. [02:41] Toni: Hi, Karin. [02:41] Chef Raf: It's good to be here. Thank you, Karin. [02:43] Karin: This is going to be a little bit of a different episode for me, and I think it's a really timely one given that we're in the middle of the holidays. We're recording this just a couple of days before Thanksgiving and it'll come out shortly after that. So I think this is a great time for people to think about being in the kitchen and what they want to maybe do in the kitchen, especially with their partner. So maybe we can start out with you letting everyone know where you are in the world. [03:14] Chef Raf: Well, we are currently in Houston, Texas. [03:18] Toni: And we say that because of his job, we normally move every three, four years. [03:25] Chef Raf: Yes. This is the longest we've been somewhere. Because I thi